Focus on GHANA

Country-focused Bulletins

August 15, 2018 West Africa/Europe: From Cocoa to Chocolate
"Cocoa growing communities, particularly in West Africa, are facing poverty, child
labour and deforestation that have been made worse by a rapid fall in prices for
cocoa. Widely touted efforts in the cocoa industry to improve the lives of farmers,
communities and the environment made in the past decade are having little impact. In
fact, the modest scope of the proposed solutions does not even come close to
addressing the scale of the problem." - Cocoa Barometer, April 2018

October 18, 2016 Ghana: New Debt Trap
"Ghana is in a debt crisis. Despite having had significant amounts
of debt canceled a decade ago, the country is losing around 30% of
government revenue in external debt payments each year. Such huge
payments are only possible because Ghana has been able to take on
more loans from institutions such as the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), which are used to pay the interest on debts to previous
lenders, whilst the overall size of the debt increases. "

September 14, 2015 West Africa: Tax Giveaway Follies
"Our research shows that three countries alone – Ghana, Nigeria and
Senegal – are losing up to $5.8 billion a year. If the rest of
ECOWAS lost revenues at similar percentages of their GDP, total
revenue losses among the 15 ECOWAS states would amount to $9.6
billion a year [due to tax incentives offered to foreign
companies]." - Action Aid and Tax Justice Network Africa